


Auxilium

by OddStarfish



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 01:25:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3469217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OddStarfish/pseuds/OddStarfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A group has to fight to survive in a zombie-ridden world. How will they handle themselves, having a new mouth to feed and more enemies to deal with?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Is This The End?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophia is walking through the forest, for she was separated from her group 5 months ago. She is on the brink of her supplies and is constantly hunting for food. She is walking through the forest, but she gets ambushed and the last of her supplies are taken. After crying her feelings out, Sophia spots a house. She finds few supplies, but it will have to do. The chapter then ends with her leaving the house and getting stopped at gun point by a man.

The twigs and leaves snap with every step she takes. Sophia enjoys the sounds. It is one of the only things that soothes her after she lost her group during travel. All that she ever thinks about is if she could’ve done something better so that she didn’t lose the group. If there was something she could’ve done to not have the zombies eat Shane. She attacks herself everyday because of this. She just tells herself that everyone makes mistakes, and it looks like that it is helping her.

Sophia is in a dense forest walking and looking for some food. She is down to her last meal, so she’s trying to save it. After being on your own for five months, she’s learned how to eat food at a pace so she won’t die, but she is practically always hungry.

As Sophia is listening to her leaves and twigs snap, she hears some snap from afar. Sophia holds in a scream.

In an attempt to hide, Sophia tried to hide behind a tree. She has no weapons. She is weak. She is the best target, and the attacker knows that.

“Where’d ya go?” A deep voice calls angrily.

Sophia is holding her breath, she has never been attacked before. Things could not get worse for her. Was this her end?

A body comes into her peripheral, and she screams and starts to run.

“Get back here!” The stranger yelled, “I have a gun!”

Sophia stops dead in her tracks, tears in her eyes, “I’m sorry!”

“Give me everything you have.” The stranger says as he puts a gun to Sophia’s head.

Sophia gives him her reminding food. The man pats her down.

“Good thing you’re ugly, young lady,” The man says as he walks away.

Once Sophia is sure the man is out of reach, she just goes to the nearest tree, sits down, back on tree, and cries. She didn’t care if walkers came to her. She just wanted to cry. She always wanted to cry, in fact, but she never did. She always held her feelings in. She was hungry as it was, but now she had nothing. What was she suppose to do? She has no hope.

Sophia decides to get up and start walking. Maybe something nice can happen for once.

“You need to earn to deserve.” Her dad always told her. She sure as hell thought she deserved something. After all she went through, how could she not have earned one good thing. Maybe this “God” in the sky will be nice for once.

As Sophia was walking, tears in her eyes, she saw a color that stood out. It was not the normal brown she saw, for it was a darker shade of the trees.

Sophia started running. Did she find something of worth? Can she live another day now? Does she have a chance?

Sophia starts at the front door. Locked.

“Of course.” Sophia says as she starts to walk around the house, looking for reachable windows. She spots one that she can barely reach. She gets a big rock on the ground, and she can barely carry it.

“I can do this.” She says, trying to motivate her self. But, once she gets to the window, she realizes that there is  no way she can do this.

Sophia starts to walk around the house again, but most of the windows she can reach are boarded up. This cabin was obviously used as a base at one point. They probably had to leave in a rush, for through the window Sophia couldn’t break, Sophia saw plenty of supplies.

Sophia gets an idea. Maybe she can knock the door down with the rock. She goes to get the rock, but hears a walker. She looks around, and it is far enough that she’ll have plenty of time before the walker comes close to her, if it decides to.

Once Sophia arrives at the door with the heavy rock, she starts swinging it back and forth until the door breaks. Sophia doesn’t but the rock down, incase there’s a walker in here.

After checking all the rooms, Sophia puts the rock by the entranced and starts searching the house, with the floor creaking with her.

The cabin was a two story house, but Sophia could just not find out how to get to the top floor. But that didn’t stop her from searching the first floor.

Out of the five rooms she searched, she got five cans of food, none expired. She also got a knife and a gun, but had no ammo. Even if she had ammo, she didn’t know how to safely shoot a gun.

Sophia starts for the door, and moves the rock out of her way. When she looks up, there’s a gun pointing at her, being held by a man who looks to be in his late-thirties.


	2. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophia is being taken to the man's camp, and she meets his companion. She is asked a few questions, and a connection is made.

“Who are you with?” The man asks in a deep voice.

“No one. I promise! Please just let me live!” Sophia says, tears in her eyes. Could she really be robbed twice in one day?

“And how old are you?” The mystery man asked, wondering how such a fragile girl could live so long.

“13.” Sophia responded, just wanting this day to end.

“Do you have anything on you?” The man asked, moving forward with his gun still pointing at the girl.

“I just got a knife in this house, along with food. Some people robbed me earlier. I swear I have nothing else!” Sophia yelled, starting to pull out what she just said, laying it on the ground.

The man indicated Sophia to get off of the porch and stand where he was. Keeping his gun pointed on her, he took the supplies that Sophia had left.

“Come with me, but don’t try anything.” The man said as he started to walk with Sophia and putting his gun down.

As the man was taking Sophia, she just listened to the crunching of the leaves and twigs below her feet, trying to stay positive.

After walking for at least fifteen minutes, Sophia saw a car in the distance with a lady that looked like she was standing watch.

“I found someone.” The man said.

“Good job, Rick. Did you ask her the questions?” The lady asked.

“Not yet, was planning to on the way back to the base.” The man replied.

Once Sophia and Rick reached the car, Sophia was instructed to go in the back. Rick and the lady sat in the back.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” Rick asked.

“Other than me breathing, nothing.” The lady responded.

“Sounds fun.” Rick said jokingly.

The lady laughed, “Sure was.”

“Joking aside, young lady. What’s your name?” The lady asked.

“Sophia.” Sophia said in a quiet voice, barely audible.

“How many walkers have you killed?” The lady asked.

“None, I usually just run away.” Sophia responded, embarrassed at how pathetic she sounded.

“How many people have you killed?” Rick asked.

“None.” Sophia responded in her normal, quiet voice.

“Why?” Rick asked.

“It’s just not right.” Sophia said in a louder voice. She felt strongly about not killing other humans.

“So, are you with anyone?” The lady asked.

“No. I’m by myself. I lost my group five months ago. I’ve just been walking, trying to survive. Waiting for something good to happen for once.” Sophia responded in her normal voice, becoming more comfortable with these people.

“Have an- Oh shit!” Rick said as he hit a walker.

The car was spinning, Sophia was screaming. The car spun onto a ditch on the side of the road.

“Is everyone ok,” Rick asked, “Michonne?”

“I’m fine, how about you, Sophia?” Michonne asked.

“I’m ok, just shaken.” Sophia responded.

“How far are we away from home? Can we just walk?” Michonne asked.

“We only have a mile, we can make it.” Rick responded.

The group set off, Sophia in the back. She didn’t get to step on as many twigs or leaves because they were on a road. All she could do to calm herself at this point is tell herself that everyone makes mistakes. Though it did not apply to her situation this time, it was one of the only things that calmed her down while she was in the forest. It’d have to do for her for the time being.

“What I was trying to ask you, do you have any family?” Rick asked.

“I have a mom, but I’m not sure if she’s alive anymore. Like I said, I lost my group five months ago.” Sophia responded.

The was a quietness for a few minutes, for no one knew how to keep the conversation going.

“What was her name?” Michonne asked, trying to start up conversation again.

“Carol. Carol Peletier.” Sophia responded.

Rick and Michonne both looked at each other, having a look in their face as if they knew something.

“What is it?” Sophia asked, hope rising in her stomach.

“Carol Peletier is at our camp.” Michonne said, looking behind her at Sophia.

Sophia started to remember what happiness was. She finally had hope.

Rick and Michonne looked at each other, both smiling. They were reuniting a family after five months.

They finished the rest of the mile long trek to their camp in complete silence. The birds chirping, the autumn leaves blowing in the wind, everyone was happy.

As the trio arrived at the base, Sophia noticed the abnormal shape. It was a hexagon. She also noticed everyone in the group crowding at the entrance, trying to see the new person.

One person stood out. Someone Sophia saw before, in what feels like a past life. The gates to the camp opened, that person came running out. That person hugged Sophia. Sophia hugged back.

That person was Carol Peletier. Sophia’s mother.


	3. Stealer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Sophia now in the group, the group is struggling more than ever to feed everyone. That's not all though, Rick is suspecting someone of stealing, and he's throwing blame at Daryl.

It has been a few days since Sophia joined the group. With an added member, the group needs to have more food than ever before, but they simply do not have enough if they do not look for food everyday. Rick is starting to suspect that someone is stealing, but he just does not know who yet.

Sophia has spent most of her time around her mom, telling her mother stories of what happened while she was on her own. She told how she was robbed, the story of a dog who starved, and many more stories. Carol also told her daughter what she did. She talked about finding Rick’s group and joining only a week or two after Sophia got separated. Carol made sure to include that she married Daryl, a person who was in Rick’s group, so Sophia wasn’t confused.

“What does Daryl do around here?” Sophia asked as she washed the dishes in kitchen. Carol’s job was to cook food for the group, so Sophia joined her for the time being.

“He is the main scavenger for the group. He chooses people everytime he goes out on a run.” Carol responded.

“He won’t choose me for right now, right? I just got here.” Sophia asked with worry.

“He probably won’t this week, but maybe next week. You can’t just avoid things like this, sweetie.” Carol responded.

“Oh, ok.” Sophia said, starting to work on the dishes again.

After washing the dishes, Sophia and Carol’s shift was over. Sophia decided to look around and meet all of the group members. Based on what she was told by Carol, Daryl was probably out with someone else collecting supplies. Sophia wanted to explore her new home, so she decided to explore the buildings. She decided to skip the three buildings next to where she because because, to her knowledge, were just houses, but the other side of the hexagon-shaped base was a grocery store, a gun store, and a restaurant. Sophia worked at the restaurant that day, so she decided to start in the gun store.

The gun store was empty, except for the person standing behind the counter.

“Oh, hello there,” said the young boy behind the counter, “My name is Carl.”

“Hi,” Sophia started, “I’m Sophia. What’s your job here?”

“I protect the weapons, and make sure no one’s stealing. It’s usually boring in here, but it’s necessary.” Carl responds with a smile.

“Hah, sure sounds fun. It seems less stressful than cooking food, though.” Sophia responds with a smile.

They both chuckle at Sophia’s joke, and Sophia decides to check out the grocery store. She started to walk in, but sees boards, indicating that it is closed off. As Sophia turns to walk out, she is surprised to see Rick behind her.

“Have you seen anyone taking the food?” Rick asked

“Oh- Um… No, I haven’t. Why? Is someone stealing it?” Sophia responded, shocked that someone was stealing.

“I think, not fully sure. Just tell me if you see anyone doing so.” Rick said with a smile, carrying on with his interrogations.

So far, he had asked Carl, Carol, Michonne, and just now, Sophia. They all said that they had taken nothing and they know nothing about anyone taking anything. This made Rick have major suspicion on Daryl. Carol and Sophia were too nice to lie, Michonne had too close of a connection to Rick to lie, and Carl was Rick’s son. Rick didn’t know Daryl’s niceness as well as he knew Daryl’s meanness, so he wasn’t as questioning of himself when he started to majorly blame Daryl.

Sadly, Rick couldn’t question Daryl immediately, for everyone was retired for the night. Rick decided to go to bed and try to get an opportunity to talk to Daryl.

***

The next day, before Daryl went to choose who he was doing a run with, Rick ran out and stopped him.

“I’m going with you,” Rick said, “You’re taking me.”

“Ok then.” Daryl said, slightly angered that he didn’t get to choose.

Daryl was already angered by the fact that he has to do a run everyday with the short supply of food.

“Where are we going today?” Rick asked Daryl.

“Yesterday, I saw this house that I’ve never seen before.” Daryl responded.

“How far?” Rick asked.

“‘Bout a mile.” Daryl responded.

The rest of the walk was silent except for the few walkers in the background. The whole time, Rick was thinking of how he could ask Daryl if he was stealing without making Daryl get mad and do something horrible. By the time they reached the house, Rick decided that he could handle Daryl if he gets out of control, so he’ll just ask bluntly.

The duo searched the house and found some water, food that could last a day or two, and a knife.

“Have you been stealing the food?” Rick asked as they left the house.

“What? No I haven’t. Why you blamin’ me. What’d I do?” Daryl asked, feeling quite offended.

“I’ve asked everyone else, and they haven’t. That only leaves you.” Rick responded.

“How do you know they ain’t lyin’?” Daryl questioned.

“I trust them. I don’t know you. So, how’d you do it?” Rick said, starting to walk closer to Daryl’s face in an attempt to intimidate.

“I said I didn’t take it.” Daryl said, pushing Rick away.

“Might as well say now, and not later.” Rick said, starting to walk back to their group’s home.

“I said I didn’t take anything.” Daryl said, catching up to Rick.

“Fine, fine, don’t start anything or the walkers will hear.” Rick said, trying to make sure him and his companion are safe.

The rest of the walk was silent and awkward. Daryl said he didn’t take anything, but Rick still didn’t believe him. Daryl didn’t want to sound desperate and keep bugging Rick about his innocence, so there was nothing he could do. He ended up deciding to find out who is stealing the food.

“I’ll prove it to ya. I’ll find out who did it.” Daryl said.

“Once you do that, I guess I’ll believe you.” Rick said, having no hope in Daryl.

Daryl only wanted Rick to believe him because Daryl knew that to be an important part to a group, or to be a group at all, everyone has to trust each other.

Once Rick and Daryl arrived back at camp, Rick stored all the food away, and they both head to bed in their separate houses. The next day, Daryl was going to look for clues.


	4. The Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl needs to prove that he's innocent to Rick so he as a chance of staying in the group. Daryl bonds with Sophia after discovering how the crook is getting in. At night, Daryl stakes out the storage room and gets close to capturing the stealer, but is just not quick enough.

As soon as the sun rose, Daryl started looking for clues. Having the hunt, he could not go out on the supply run, so Daryl asked Rick. Rick angrily agreed to and decided to take Carl, so he could have some father-son bonding time.

The first that Daryl decided to check was the area where food was stored. Luckily, he could easily convince his wife to let him through with a small kiss. This wasn’t taking advantage of their relationship, but the couple had a large trust for each other. They had been through a lot together.

As Daryl walked in the storage room, he didn’t notice anything obvious. It took some moving of a couple empty crates, smushing them all into one corner, and dusting off a lot of things before Daryl noticed the light shining in.

It only took a few minutes for Daryl to locate the hole that was allowing the light to shine through.

“Aha.” Daryl whispered to himself, proud at his discovery.

Through a more thorough investigation, Daryl realized that someone could easily crawl in from the outside. This was bad for multiple reasons. Walkers could come in, people could steal, as seen already, and they could be easily raided. Daryl didn’t want to just patch it up though, he wanted to catch who was endangering the group by stealing the food.

Daryl decided that he’d camp out the storage at night, obviously the only time that someone could steal. Everyone had a view of everywhere during the day.

As Daryl had nothing to do now that he found out why and how the food was getting stolen, he decided to bond with his daughter.

Sophia had that day off, as her and Carol now took turns in the kitchen, so Daryl went to the Hex to find Sophia. (The Hex was the nickname for the middle of the oddly shaped home that the group had. The group meetings were also usually held here.)

“Enjoyin’ it here?” Daryl asked, as he walked up to Sophia who was staring at the middle firepit, obviously lost in thought.

“Yeah.” Sophia said, not yet comfortable with her new dad yet.

“I don’t have anythin’  else to do today, so I wanted to bond.” Daryl said, unsure how to bond with someone. He wasn’t used to trying to befriend someone. Most of his friends came when they bonded with him.

Sophia was amused at her dad’s not-so-good bonding, so she decided to lead the conversation.

“How’d you find mom?” Sophia asked.

“Well, I was walkin’ in the woods one day when a hoard of them things came after me. There were too many, so I couldn’t find them all, as I would’ve like to. Eventually, after that, we just happened to cross paths and I joined her group, which is led by Rick.” Daryl answered, taking a seat next to his daughter.

“What do you know about everyone else in this camp?” Sophia asked, truly curious.

“Well, there’s Michonne, the girl who picked you up. She’s mostly quiet, but talks to Rick more than anyone else.” Daryl started before he was interrupted by Sophia.

“Are they, like, dating?” Sophia asked with a small giggle.

Daryl chuckled, “Nah, they’re just good friends. At least as far as they show to everyone else.”

“What about that boy in the gun store? Carl, I think.” Sophia asked. She wasn’t used to someone her age being around her.

“Yeah, his name’s Carl. He, like Michonne, is mostly only talkative around Rick. Bein’ his son and all, Rick kind of forces Carl to stay with him, but I don’t think Carl minds.” Daryl said, wondering if Sophia was thinking of Carl as a possible date. He laughed at the thought and didn’t ask.

“You’ve talked a lot about Rick. Who is he? Well, I know WHO he is, but like, what is he like?” Sophia asked.

“He’s sometimes kind, but he can be a real di- rude person,” Daryl started, fixing his mistake, making Sophia laugh, “He’s usually ruder to strangers than us in the group, unless we endanger Rick or Michonne. He’s just really protective.”

“Nice to know what to expect of people around here, I guess.” Sophia said.

After a few minutes of silence, having nothing to talk about, Sophia said, “I’m gonna go check on mom. See you around, I guess.”

“Bye.” Daryl said with a small wave.

***

That night, Daryl didn’t go to bed with everyone else. He stayed up and went into the storage area.

There was little activity except for one part of the night. Daryl heard twigs snap right outside the hole.

Shocked, Daryl jumped up on the crates that he set aside earlier, allowing him to easily attack when necessary. A few moments after Daryl heard the noise, he heard some crawling. This was no walker. It was human.

As quietly as he could, Daryl pulled out his knife. While doing so, he accidentally hit a box, knocking it down.

“Oh shit.” Daryl said to himself, but hearing another voice say it to, along with footsteps getting quieter and quieter.

Daryl took this opportunity and crawled out the hole and started chasing the man who was just outside of the storage room.

Daryl ran for what seemed like fifteen minutes before running out of air, giving up, and then deciding to try again the next night. Sure, the person may not come back, but he knew that if that person wants to keep himself or others, if not both, alive, he’d have to come back.

When the sun rose the next morning, Daryl immediately told Rick what he discovered. They decided that they’d do a stakeout that night.

Daryl then went out on his daily run, taking Rick so they could plan what they’d do that night.


End file.
